Tag Archives | Psychology

There are three obstacles Apiary Fund traders must overcome in order to get funded: trading knowledge, trading skill, and trading psychology. The toughest of these is trading psychology.

The next few Apiary Fund blog posts will focus on a different barrier we have in our trading psychology and present ways to break the barrier!

Trading Psychology Barrier: Getting Something for Nothing

Most people like the idea of trading currencies because of the vast fortunes you can make with very little effort. Sadly, it’s not that easy. Trading currencies requires work – a lot it. You must spend time learning and developing your skill. Like anything that requires skill, such as sports, music, or professional occupation, you should not expect to just walk in and experience instant success. The desire to make something from nothing leads to speculative behavior. Speculative behavior leads to financial ruin.

Breaking the Trading Psychology Barrier: Commitment.

Breaking the trading psychology barrier of getting something for nothing is as simple as making a commitment.

The usual excuse for the uncommitted is that:

– “There’s something ‘better’ around the corner” – or –

– “There’s no clear evidence of a win with what I’m doing.”

Modern psychology will tell you that ‘WHAT’ you commit to is secondary to ‘HOW’ you commit to it. It is ‘how’ you commit to trading that will make you successful. Only the smallest part of committing is a passive process that evaluates whether or not something will work. The #1 factor that will make the choice to trade currencies successful or not is what work you put into it.

Stay tuned for tips on the next trading psychology barrier: Fight or Flight.

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Life is a journey, sprinkled with dreams, filled with courage, and expressed in action. – Tanadi Santoso

Most people I know can be divide into two groups. The first is a group that love to complain for whatever they find. The second is a group that love to dream. The similarity from both : nothing change on their life. They do the same pattern everyday. The way they think is the same. How can you expect a different event if you’re using the same formula over and over again?
A few of them want to learn new stuff. The problem is, they don’t implement their new knowledge. So when I talk to this people, I always find new interesting topics that are useful for me. It become useful because I learn deeper and act to make it real.
Same with trading. When friends or family know I do trading, they start to talk how risky is trading and they have lists of people who lose money in trading. Before, I try to give them the right perspective. But, by the time, I just smile to them and make them feel right on their opinion. Why? Because in trading, I need to meet people that can trade or have interest in trading. I don’t waste my time and energy to talk to ‘deaf’ (psychologically deaf).
Few from my friends have the same interest in money and we talk about money and investment. Also sharing opportunity that we could work on. Still, in trading they don’t ‘jump into the pool’. They follow the news, do practice trading, but don’t have real account. In order to make your dream come true, you need knowledge follow with act to make it real. You need both.
Like Tanadi wrote, : you need courage and express it in action. Most of people I know are afraid to make mistake and don’t have courage to responsible for their act. So they stay in their comfort zone. The problem is, world changes. And lately the changes is crushing economy growth. Require advance skill to survive in the next economy turbulence. For me, as long I can fix my mistake, I’ll imply new skill in order to make my dream come true.

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Well, this is been something of a power month for the Apiary Fund, and we couldn’t be more anxious for what’s coming up! As a part of our January wrap-up, let’s take a look at our biggest headline:

The Investor Profile

An early release of the Apiary’s Investor Profile was actually announced in December, and it’s been a huge hit! This month we extended beyond Apiary associates and launched the Investor Profile to the public.

As our traders have taken the personality test, it’s been interesting to see the many different personalities that have all come together to form this great community. And it hasn’t just been beneficial for us! The Investor Profile has provided our community of traders an opportunity for serious introspection and trading system adjustment. The new Investor Profile can be found here.

As for what’s coming up, I hope you’ve marked the Winter 2013 Traders’ Summit in your calendars! The three-day event starts on February 25, and there will be plenty of Q&A, so come prepared with any questions or topics you want to discuss with Apiary’s instructors and risk managers! There will also be some live trading sessions and training activities! Visit the Traders’ Summit site to learn more and reserve your seat!

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The Apiary Fund has a goal. We want every associate who joins our community to become a consistent and profitable trader. The road our associates travel is marked with several milestones along the way. Sometime is easy to lose the perspective of progress along the way.

I am reminded of a story about two boys who were digging a hole in front of their home. As they were digging, one of boys came up with an idea.

“What if we could dig a hole all the way through the earth and come out the other side?”

After some discussion, they decided to give it a try and started shoveling with great earnest.

Meanwhile, a few of the neighbor kids noticed the hole they were digging and, out of curiosity, came over to see what was going on.

“What are you doing?” asked one of the neighborhood kids.

“We’re going to dig a hole all the way through the Earth!” answered both of the boys excitedly.

The neighbor kids began to laugh and told the boys that digging all the way through the Earth was impossible. The boys were clearly disappointed with the lack of support from their peers.

However, after a minute of silence and reflection, excitement returned to the eyes of one of the boys and he picked up a jar full of spiders, worms, and insects. The boy removed the lid and showed the contents of the jar to the scoffing kids, “Well, maybe we can and maybe we can’t, but even if we can’t, you should see some of the cool stuff we’re finding on the way!”

As you work and toil in pursuit of the Apiary Fund goals, there are three lessons we can learn from the boys who tried digging through the earth:

Never underrate the value of your progress. Reaching the goal is not the ultimate measure of success. There is great success in the progress. There is great satisfaction in the milestones. There is great joy in the journey. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

“Life is like an old time rail journey…delays…sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling burst of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, 1910-2008)

Don’t surrender to negativity. No matter what progress you’ve made in your goal, not everyone will see the full vision of your success. But you don’t have to surrender to their negativity.

Pick up treasures along the way. It’s important to remember as you pursue your goals that you can pick up a lot of “cool” things in the course of your journey. I remember wishing I had a mentor who could take me under his wing and show me everything I needed to know to become a successful trader. The fact is, I had many mentors and they all gave me treasures of wisdom that has benefited me in great measure throughout my life.

Learning to trade is a journey – an old rail journey – full of bumps and jolts and dust and smoke. The unpleasantness of the journey is also part of the marvel. It’s part of what makes the journey unique. In fact, it only helps elevate the magnificence of the success. Sure, others may scoff and poke fun, but successful traders look beyond the naysayers and keep a positive perspective.

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Because trading psychology is one of the most important aspects of our industry, we emphasize the need for emotional discipline. Now don’t get us wrong—you don’t have to be a robot to see success in your trading, but you certainly need to be in control of your emotions.

Trading becomes a whole new ball game once you’ve earned a live, funded account. Statistically, there are some significant changes in behavior that manifest themselves when the money is real. Though the initial balance is smaller on a live account, which reduces the impact of a single trade, we still tend to get a little cautious with real money. Too often, newly-funded traders’ equity curves begin to show a downward slope because they suddenly aren’t letting trades run and they’re cutting their winners short—all in the name of capital preservation!

To counteract this, we at the Apiary Fund emphasize that traders should establish a set of rules and stick to them. There isn’t a set of universal trading strategies that work for everyone, but when you find out what works for you, practice with it. Tweak it when you need to. But once you’ve established those rules, don’t ever break them.

The rules won’t always determine which positions you take, but they should help determine how long you hold them. It will be easier to accept losses that way. You will put less pressure on yourself, and you’ll find that your trading will improve!

Disclaimer

Investing in securities, currencies, and/or contracts associated therewith carries inherent risks. No person, institution, or entity, including the Apiary Investment Fund, can guarantee a return on investment for such transactions. Neither the Apiary Investment Fund nor its representatives will recommend the purchase, sale, or transaction advice for a specific security.